


I'm Right Here

by LoneStar_118



Category: Chicago Med, Chicago PD (TV)
Genre: Angst, Hurt Adam Ruzek, Hurt/Comfort, worried kevin atwater
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-12
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-16 21:01:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28713192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoneStar_118/pseuds/LoneStar_118
Summary: Adam gets shot and the team scrambles to find answers.
Relationships: Kevin Atwater & Adam Ruzek, Kim Burgess/Adam Ruzek
Comments: 12
Kudos: 55





	1. Chapter 1

“You ever miss this?” Kevin asks sipping his coffee and glancing down at Kim who chokes on a mouthful of donut.

“No,” she snorts, and swallows.

“Not even a little?” Kevin presses. “Those good ol’ days of the two of us walkin the beat, sipping coffee, writing parking tickets-”

“Getting barfed on by drunk and disorderlies, doing lunch runs for Platt, yeah. Those were the greatest days of my career,” Kim jokes, a grin coming across her face. “Okay, yeah I miss it a little sometimes.”

“See,” Kevin says with satisfaction and tips his coffee cup toward her. The two of them had some great times in the old blues; he wouldn’t trade his assignment in intelligence for anything, but he’d been a little sad when he’d been moved up and had to leave Kim behind. 

“As much as I miss walking around in the cold rain with you, I can’t believe I let you talk me into foot patrol overtime,” Kim says shaking her head. 

“The misery will only make going home and curling up with a warm blanket all the sweeter.”

Kim looks like she’s about to make some weak, humored argument, but stops to listen to the call from dispatching coming in. 

_ “Reports of shots fired at the corner of 47th street and Morgan. Plain clothed officer in need of assistance.” _

Kim stops walking and glances over her shoulder. “That’s only a block or two away.”

“Let’s go,” Kevin says without a moment's hesitation and dumps the remainder of his coffee in the trash. It’ll be a long run, but if one of their own needs help, they’ve gotta go.

“50-21 Eddie responding on foot,” Kim calls in and then takes off at run.

“CI meet gone wrong?” Kevin pants, matching his partner’s pace. She’s small but she’s got speed and she can keep a good pace.

“No idea,” Kim huffs, picking up her pace a little. “Could be anything.”

Kevin’s chest aches and his legs are burning by the time they finally slow down at the reported location.

“I don’t see anything,” Kim breathes and reaches for her gun.

“Probably in there,” Kevin says and gestures toward an entrance to what looks like a junkyard of some sort. He can’t see much over the fence, but he can make out a few bulk shipping containers.

“Let’s check it out,” Kim whispers and pulls out her gun and ducks over to the fence post by the entrance way, using it as cover from whatever is waiting for them on the other side. “You ready?”

Kevin can feel his heart pounding in his throat and he’s still out of breath from their run here, but they can’t wait around for him to catch his breath. “Ready.”

Kim nods and steps out into the open entrance way, gun raised. Kevin follows a step behind her.

“Chicago P-” She breaks off mid shout and lets her arms drop to her side. Kevin glances at her for one confused second and then he sees what she sees.

“Kim-”

“That’s Adam’s car,” Kim breathes and takes off at a run toward the vehicle parked next to one of the shipping containers. Before he even realizes he’s doing it, Kevin is chasing after her, panic shooting up inside of him and closing up his throat like a reaching around his neck and strangling him.

“Ruz? Ruz you here?!” Kevin shouts as they near the car, his mind racing. Maybe they’re wrong and it’s not his car. There’s no reason for him to be in some construction yard on his day off in the cold rain. Adam can be a bit of a workaholic but he loves his days off and sleeping in. He’s probably warm at home enjoying the comfort of his bed not here getting shot at- that has to be it. They’re wrong about the car.

“Adam!” Kim’s scream from around the corner of the shipping unit kills all of Kevin’s hopes that they were wrong about the car. And the fear and panic in her tone make him feel sick.

By the time Kevin rounds the corner, Kim is already on her knees in the mud next to, what is unmistakably Adam, flipping him onto his back. There’s blood everywhere, and most of it appears to be coming from a gunshot wound at the base of his neck just above his collar bone. Kevin can see at least two other places where he’s hit, but he can’t tell if the bullets made it through the vest.

“50-21 Eddie, I have an officer down, multiple gsws- I need an ambulance rolled to my location,  _ now _ ,” Kim chokes into her radio as she presses one hand against Adam’s neck trying to stop the bleeding.

“Ruz, Ruz you’re gonna be okay,” Kevin promises as he kneels down next to his partner on the muddy ground. He doesn’t even think Adam can hear him, but it doesn’t matter. “Me and Kim are right here. We’re right here buddy. We got you.”

Kevin fumbles with the velcro on the side of Adam’s vest, and his hands are covered in blood before he even gets the thing open all the way.

“Shit,” Kevin hisses and presses his hand against the bullet hole in Adam’s abdomen. He’s never been panicky, but this is different. His partner- his best friend- is bleeding out beneath his hands and he can’t breathe, for the life of him he can’t swallow back the lump in his throat choking him.

“Kevin, we can’t wait for an ambulance,” Kim says desperatly looking up at him with scared eyes; there are tears already streaming down her cheeks. “He’s losing too much blood-”

“I know, I know, just let me-” Kevin says quickly and glances over his shoulder at Adam’s car parked a few feet away. “There. I can get him to the car. I just need you to keep pressure on his neck, okay?”

Kim nods mutely as Kevin pulls one of Adam’s arms over his shoulder and slides his arm under his partner’s legs.

“Alright, I got you Ruz,” Kevin whispers, before attempting to stand up. He buckles under his partner’s dead weight and barely manages to make it to his feet. Adam groans quietly, but doesn’t show any other sign that he’s aware of what’s going on. Kevin stumbles toward the car, unsure if he’ll make it that far carrying Adam, with each step he’s sure he’s going to lose his grip on him and fall over. Kim is doing what she can to help support the weight of Adam’s body, but she can’t do much with her one free arm that isn’t pressed against the base of Adam’s neck.

“Get that door, and get in,” Kevin grunts as they reach the car. He’s not sure how much longer he can hold Adam.

Kim flings the door open and climbs in, moving faster than Kevin has ever seen her before. He eases Adam down onto the back seat of the car as gently as he can, but it’s still rougher than he would’ve liked. He hesitates for a half a second, watching Kim pull Adam’s head into her lap; blood has smeared up the side of his neck and sliding down from the corner of his mouth staining his face and catching in his beard.

“I got him,” Kim promises locking gazes with Kevin. “Just drive.”

Kevin nods silently and runs around to the driver’s side of the car and jumps in. The keys are still in the ignition; he turns the car on and throws it into gear.

“Call ahead into Med and tell them we’re not waiting for the ambulance,” Kevin says as he flicks on the sirens and presses the gas pedal down to the floor.

***

Trudy had heard the officer down call come in over the radio at the district. There hadn’t been any names said, but she knew it was bad, very bad, as soon as she heard Kim make the call over the radio that they weren't waiting for an ambulance and transporting in an unmarked squad car. That’s when she’d made the decision to leave and head to the hospital to meet them. One of the officers from the 21st, one of  _ her  _ officers, is down; she needs to be there.

“Are you two okay?” She demands walking into the waiting room and setting eyes on Kim and Kevin, who are standing around like two lost kids, their blue uniforms stained with blood. There may be an officer hit, but the first order of business is the two knuckleheads in front of her.

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Kevin speaks for the two of them, he has one arm tucked protectively around Kim. “We’re both fine.”

“All that blood-” Trudy starts to ask.

“It’s Adam’s,” Kim mumbles, answering her next question before she can even think to ask it.

“Adam?” Trudy demands, raising her eyebrows. There’s no point in even trying to hide her surprise and confusion. Adam wasn’t even working today. “What the hell do you mean it’s Adam’s? He wasn’t even working today-”

“It was Ruzek,” Kevin says, interrupting her. “We don’t know what happened or what he was doing there- but we got there and he was down.”

“How bad?” Trudy demands searching Kevin’s gaze. His eyes are dull and tired and lightless… She doesn’t even need him to answer the question. “Does Voight know?”

Kevin nods. “I called him. He’s rolling the team to the scene.”

“You two should go,” Trudy says after a moment's hesitation. She’s not going to force either of them to do anything. Kim, Kevin, and Adam are inseparable, they’ve been that way since they were rookies, they grew up in the department together. If Kim and Kevin want to stay she isn’t going to try to stop them. Voight on the other hand might. One of his is down. It’s going to be all hands on deck. “Voight’s going to want everyone on this, and you two need to give your statements.”

Kevin glances down at Kim, who’s staring blankly at the floor with a hollow expression on her face, and then he looks back up at Trudy with hesitation.

“I’m not going to make you guys go. I’m not even going to try to talk you into it, but I will say this: I’m staying here no matter what and I’ll keep you posted as soon as I know anything if you guys do decide to get.”

Kim clears her throat and looks up with angry determination. “We need to find this guy, Kev.”

“Okay,” Kevin agrees.

Trudy gives them both a firm nod of approval. “Go catch the son of a bitch.”

She stays standing until the officers are out sight and then she wanders off to one of the chairs in the corner to wait for news from one of the doctors.

***

“We’ve got nothing off pod photage or security cameras,” Jay reports as Voight comes out of his office. Kevin recognises the unholy fiery anger in his bosses eyes. They’re going to have to be careful with this one, its no secret that Voight tends to go off the reservation when its his people who are hurt, really the whole team does, but Voight does more so than anyone else. “There weren’t any in the area.”

“Are you telling me we don’t have anything?” Voight demands, glaring at Jay.

“We’ve got some shell casings found on the scene, but that’s it,” Jay says helplessly.

Voight purses his lips and nods angrily turning his attention to Kevin and Kim. “Kim, Burgess, anything on his personal or work phone?”

“Nothing,” Kim says with a little head shake. Her gaze is still hollow and lightless like every emotion has been sucked out of her by a giant vacuum. He’s never seen her like this before, not even after she lost the baby. It hurts Kevin on a level he can’t even begin to describe seeing his old partner like this.

“There has to be  _ something! _ ” Voight shouts. “Ruzek had a reason for being in that junk yard and there was a reason someone shot him! He wasn’t just there for shits and giggles! I want everything checked and double checked. Look into his email, friends, CI’s-”

“Wait,” Kevin says looking up at the mention of CI’s. He can’t believe he hadn’t thought of it sooner, but there was a CI that Adam had mentioned the day before. Or more a potential CI. “Yesterday we were talking and he mentioned he had a CI he was trying to breakin in South Loop.”

“That would explain where he was,” Hailey say.

“Okay, that’s something,” Voight says, seemingly calming down a little. “Do you know if this CI was on paper yet?”

“I don’t think so,” Kevin says with a sigh, feeling yet another wall coming up with this investigation. “And Ruz didn’t mention any names.”

“Then look into his arrests over the past couple weeks. The CI’s gotta be someone he popped recently. Pull his files, flag anyone with connections to South Loop. Then bring them in for questioning,” Voight orders.

“Sergeant we need to talk.” Kevin nearly jumps out of his skin at the sound od deputy superintendent Miller’s authoritative voice behind him.

Voight sighs and nods toward his office.

“No, actually I think this something all your people need to hear,” she says dismissively and waves Voight off. “I know this case is personal for all of you, I get it. But you need to remember there’s a lot of eyes on the department right now and going off book even for one of your own won’t be tolerated-”

“One of my officers was just down and left to bleed out in the dirt and the only reason you come up here is to remind us to play nice?!” Voight challenges, glaring his burning beady eyed glare at the deputy superintendent.

“I know how you work Voight-”

“You really don’t give a damn, do you?” Voight snarls and takes an angry step forward.

Miller lifts an eyebrow, but doesn’t flinch. “I came up here to let you know that I’m letting you stay on the case-”

“ _ Letting  _ us?” Voight shouts. “Who the hell do you think you are?  _ Letting us?  _ This is my unit-”

“With the track your on, it won’t be for much longer,” Miller says calmly. “And against my better judgement I’m letting you guys stay on this case, but I won’t hesitate to take you off it if things start to get out of hand.”

Kevin is pretty sure Voight is about to absolutely lose it, worse than he did when Adam had said no to taking their suspect to the cage and Kevin had backed him and then taken the lead on standing up to their boss. But before Voight can start spitting hell fire at the deputy superintendent Kim, who’s been completely ignoring the fight going on around her, speaks up.

“Guys, I got something,” She says looking up from her computer. “Two weeks ago he popped this kid Dillan Baker for drug possession, but didn’t bring him in and process him. He lives two blocks away from where Adam was shot.”

“That’s gotta be our guy!” Kevin says grabbing his coat.

“I don’t know,” Kim says looking up from the computer. “The kid’s 13.”

“Well, we’ll talk to him. He lives in the area he might know something,” Voight says, seemingly forgetting about Miller’s presence. “Let’s roll.”

“Do I need to come with you?” She asks.

“No, we’ll play nice,” Voight says swinging on his coat.

***

“Boss, I want first crack,” Kevin says. Right now he’s really the only one he really trusts not to get trigger happy with this. As a whole the team usually keeps their heads on, but this case isn’t the usual case. Adam’s in the hospital and there’s no word on how he’s doing. Emotions are high, hell Kevin’s still feeling hot and his heart hasn’t returned to its resting rate since this morning, but he’s still thinking straight. “You guys just cover the exits in case he tries to run.”

Voight nods signaling the team to obey Kevin’s request. “Remember he’s our only lead and he very well might be Adam’s shooter. Take Kim with you.”

“I know boss,” Kevin replies. He’s pretty sure it’s not this kid. Shooting a cop is a big step up from small time drug possession. Kevin walks across the yard to the small run down yellow house that Adam’s file says Dillon lives in with his 18 year old brother Joey. He can’t see any sign that anyone’s home, and that scares him. The kid is more likely to be brought in alive and safe if he’s not out on the street where any number of things could happen trying to apprehend him. He steps up to the door, Kim follows and positions herself with the back against the wall across the wooden door from Kevin.

“Chicago PD, anyone home?” Kevin shouts as non threateningly as he can and wraps his knuckles against the door. “I need to ask you some questions.”

“We didn’t do anything!” comes a reply that sounds more frightened than anything else.

“I know, but I need to talk to you about the shooting down the block,” Kevin replies. “There’s a lot of angry people out here looking for answers about what happened to my partner. And they’re going to be a lot less polite-”

“Wait, your Kevin Atwater?”

Kevin frowns and looks to Kim who shrugs looking just as confused as he feels. How does this kid know his name?

“Yeah, that’s me,” Kevin replies cautiously and almost immediately the door swings open revealing Joey and his little brother Dillan. They both look terrified and worried, but at the same time there’s some small amount of relief in their eyes. “How do you know me?”

Joey glances over his shoulder at his little brother, and then back at Kevin. “Adam told us that if he wasn’t the one who came to get us, we should ask for his partner… you.”

Kevin glances over at Kim before looking back at the boys. “Do you guys know what happened this morning?”

Dillan opens his mouth to talk but Joey cuts him off. “We can’t talk here. Adam said there’s somewhere safe you can take us. We want to go there.”

“Is Adam okay?” Dillan blurts.

“Of course he’s fine,” Joey snaps and gives Kevin a look that clearly says ‘play along’.

“Yeah, Ruz is fine,” Kevin says, willing it to be true. “But we really need to talk to you guys.”

“Okay, but we’ll only talk to you,” Joey agrees. “And you have to make it look like you’re arresting us.”

“Okay,” Kevin agrees and reaches for his cuffs just as two squad cars pull up and screech to a stop in front of the house, lights flashing and sirens going. Two uniforms get out of the first car and Nolan steps out of the second, making Kevin’s blood run cold.

“Those are my robbery suspects,” He shouts, marching across the yard toward them.

“No, no, no,” Joey says, taking a small step back. “He can’t be here- you can’t be with that dude. I won’t talk if you are-”

“I’m not,” Kevin promises. “Now just play along.”

He grabs Joey and pushes him face first against the wall. “You’re under arrest for the attempted murder of a police officer.”

“What?!” Joey cries in dismay. “I didn’t have nothing to do with that cop getting shot!”

“You too, kid,” Kim says and grabs Dillan.

“No! He didn’t have anything to do with it either!” Joey shouts and pulls against Kevin as he clamps the handcuffs around his wrists.

“Shut up!” Kevin shouts. “You shot my partner and left him to bleed out in the dirt.”

“What are you doing!” Nolan shouts as Kevin leads Joey down the steps. Voight is barring his way.

“They’re arresting our two lead suspects in the shooting of an officer,” Voight replies and gives Nolan a little shove back. “That trumps your robbery. We get first crack. Atwater, Burgess, get those two down to the district.”

“Yes sir,” Kevin says, shoving Joey toward the car. He doesn’t take his eyes of Nolan and Nolan follows him with a death glare that could melt a glacier, but Kevin doesn’t flinch. He’s not scared of him. Never has been. Never will.

***

“So how do you know Ruz?” Kevin asks, setting down a sandwich and soda in front of Joey on the interview room table.

“Where’s Dillan?” Joey demands, ignoring Kevin’s question.

“He’s upstairs in the lounge with my partner Kim Burgess. She’ll take care of him. I promise,” Kevin explains. “But I really need you to start talking or you really will become a suspect in what happened this morning.”

“We were meeting him there. He was going to take us in and give us protection,” Joey explains. “Then dude started shooting at us. He told us to run home and stay there until him or you came to get us and not to open the door for anyone else.”

“Why did you need protection?” Kevin asks. He’s not entirely sure he believes the kid. Whatever this mess is, it seems big and surely Adam would’ve told him about it.

“It’s Dillan that needed it,” Joey mumbles and buries his face in his hands. “This all my fault…”

“Joey, listen. You need tell me everything. Why was my partner helping you? What happened?” Kevin says gently and grabs one of Joey’s hands.

“We were struggling,” Joey says with tears in his dark eyes. “I shouldn’t be taking care of Dillan, but I aged out of foster care and I wasn’t about to leave him.”

“Struggling how?” Kevin asks.

“I couldn’t keep food on the table. My job washing dishes doesn’t pay enough, and Dillan wanted to help so I let him get a job delivering pastries and stuff for a bakry. It was the sort of thing where he get paid cash by people to go pick up their doughnuts or whatever,” Joey explains. He looks miserable. “And I thought it was legit. I swear- I could’ve joined a gang and made money but I didn’t. I have to keep my little brother safe-”

“Okay, it’s okay,” Kevin soothes, trying to help Joey calm down. The kid’s on the verge of tears. “What happened with the delivery thing?”

“It was drugs. They were having my little brother run drugs, but he didn’t know it until some officer stopped him and searched him.”

“Ruzek?”

“No, somebody else. But Ruzek was in the area and took over after the drugs were found. He talked the other cop into letting him take the case or something,” Joey says. “He took Dillan home to me instead of the station. I thought he was going to make him snitch, but he didn’t. He said he believed Dillan and that he was too young to snitch. He just asked him about this one house he’d delivered to once. Then left us his card and told us to call him if we needed anything.”

“What house?” Kevin asks. If someone involved in drug dealing thought these kids were talking to Adam that could be why they’d been shot at. Take out the snitches and the person they’re snitching to.

“I don’t know, I don’t remember. I wasn’t really paying attention. I just wanted him to stop talking to my brother and leave. Cops are trouble even when they’re trying to help,” Joey replies, and leans back in his chair. “If anything they’re more trouble when they’re trying to help.”

“So what ended up happening? Why did you two need protection?” Kevin asks.

“Some guy came and threatened us. He said he saw us talking to a cop and that we were snitches. I didn’t want to call Adam. That’d just prove the point, but Dillan ended up calling him. He’s little and he was scared.”

Kevin can’t believe Adam hadn’t mentioned any of this to him. They’re partners, best friends, they tell each other practically everything; his partner must have some reason for keeping him out of the loop on this, but what is it? What would make him keep this a secret. The only thing he can really think of, is if it has something to do with him, something that might put him in danger so Adam decided to leave him out of it all together. Kevin arrives at the only possible conclusion: Nolan.

“How did you know who Nolan was?” Kevin asks.

“Who’s Nolan?” Joey stammers like the question took him by surprise and he’s trying to make something up on the spot.

“The cop who showed up while we were bringing you in.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know him,” Joey replies, he’s more confident with his lie this time.

“Then why’d you freak out when you saw him,” Kevin asks. This has to have something to do with him.

“I thought he was somebody else. Can I see my brother now?” Joey asks.

“Come on, I know that’s not true. What does that cop have to do with this?” Kevin urges.

“I want to see my little brother now,” Joey repeats and crosses his arms over his chest.

“Joey, I can’t help you if you don’t talk to me. How is he involved?”

“He’s not. I’ve never seen him before.”

“Joey-”

“”Kevin,” Kim’s soft voice interrupts him as she pokes her head into the room. She looks more broken than she did this morning and there are tears in her eyes. “Trudy called.


	2. Chapter 2

“Hey Ruz,” Kevin says quietly as he pulls a chair up next to Adam’s bed. Trudy is sitting across from him with one of Adam’s hands clasped between both of hers. Her eyes are red like she’s been crying, but had just managed to wipe her tears away before Kevin had come in the room. Her cheeks are still wet. “What’d the doctors say?”

He knows it can’t be good, Trudy’s been crying which is never a good sign, and Adam looks terrible. He’s almost paler than the pillow sheet under his head and his chest is barely rising and falling as he breathes. There’s hesitation in the movement like it could just stop at any second. Kevin’s never seen anyone looks so frail and fragile before, and it’s so wrong that it’s Adam. He’s one of the biggest most hard headed belligerent people Kevin knows and seeing him like this, barely hanging on, is painful.

“He lost a lot of blood, almost half,” Trudy says quietly without taking her gaze off Adam’s pale face. “They’ve got him on a transfusion, but it’ll still take a while to get everything back to where it should be. And they don’t know if he’ll be able to hang on that long.”

“He will,” Kevin says confidently. He’s too stubborn to give up and die. “He’ll keep holding on.”

Trudy tears her gaze away from Adam to smile at Kevin; it’s a weak one but there’s gratitude and appreciation in it. “He always has been stubborn, hasn’t he?”

“A stubborn idiot,” Kevin says quietly shaking his head.

“Hey Kevin,” Trudy says with hesitation in her tone, it’s weird coming from her; she’s always so articulate and confident.

“Yeah?” Kevin asks leaning forward.

“Do you know what he was working on? Like off books?” She asks.

“No, we have no idea what he was working on, why?” Kevin asks, adjusting his position to look at the desk sergeant more intently. There’s something she knows; he can feel it. “Trudy, did he say something to you?”

“Two weeks ago-” She stops and glances at Adam before continuing. “Two weeks ago he came to me and asked me to sign out some surveillance equipment, and he asked me to do it in my name so his name was off the books.”

Kevin frowns.

“I asked him what he wanted it for and he said he was following a hunch. I didn’t like the idea of it, but I knew the look. He had something, and he was going to run with it one way or another, whether I helped him or not. So I helped him. I figured it was safer than him trying to do what ever he was doing without it.”

“And you didn’t tell Voight?” Kevin asks.

“No, but I kept tabs on what he was doing just in case,” Trudy says. “What he was doing seemed important, and I didn’t want to mess it up or make him think he couldn’t trust me.”

“What was he doing?” Kevin can’t help but think it has something to do with Nolan. It’s no coincidence that Nolan had shown up at that house when they were bringing in Joey and Dillan. Kevin knows Adam would take a bullet for him and a lot of other things too, and Kevin would do the same for him. It’s been that way between the two of them for a long time. He’d told Adam that he had things sorted out with Nolan, but if Ruzek had stumbled across something that could take down the guy threatening Kevin, there’s no universe- no equation- no way he doesn’t pursue it. And there’s a good chance he’d keep it to himself so Kevin could keep on being safe from Nolan. That’s just the kind of person he is.

“He was doing surveillance on this address,” Trudy says as she pulls out her pocket book and tears out a piece of paper and hands it across to Kevin. “It was almost everyday after work. He’d take a different vehicle every time. I went and checked it out the other day. It’s a quiet house in a quiet neighborhood. I looked into it in our files too. Nothing popped.”

Kevin looks at the address and does a double take. “Trudy, this is like two blocks away from where the two boys we just brought in live. This has to be the house he was asking them about-”

“What boys?” Trudy asks, perking up. “You guys have suspects?”

“They’re not suspects in the shooting but they’re involved. Adam was trying to get them into protection, and they know something that they’re not saying. One of them flipped out earlier when he saw Nolan, who was apparently-”

“Kevin stop!” Trudy snaps sharply, shutting him with a fierce look and then drops her voice to a whisper. “ _ Nolan is involved in this?” _

“I don’t know. It’s a working theory-”

“You think Adam was going after him,” Trudy says knowingly. Nothing’s ever been lost on her. “I thought you said you had that handled!”

“I did- I told him that-”

“Kevin, Adam’s smart and capable, but Nolan is too big of a fish for him to fry on his own- he’s too big a fish for  _ you  _ to fry alone. That guy’s like Voight times ten. He’ll cover his ass and he’ll cover his people’s asses. If you even  _ think  _ he’s involved you have to tell Hank,” Trudy hisses.

“I don’t know Trudy,” Kevin says hesitantly.”I don’t know how Nolan ties into this, I don’t even know if he does at all.”

“Kevin, if you aren’t going to tell Hank you need to at least tell me everything, okay? You can’t do this alone. I won’t let you.”

“Okay,” Kevin sighs. There’s no point in arguing with her. “We tracked down a kid we thought Adam was trying to flip into being a CI. Turns out he wasn’t trying to flip him. He got the kid out of a drug charge for unknowingly transporting drugs. The only thing he wanted from him was information about some house, i’m guessing this one,” Kevin shakes the piece of paper in his hand. “He gave the kid and his brother his card and left. Then someone threatened them. They told Ruz. They were meeting him this morning so he could take them somewhere safe. Then the shooting started and he told them to run.”

“How does any of this relate to Nolan, Kevin?”

“He showed up when we were bringing the kids for questioning and tried to get them in his custody,” Kevin explains. “There has to be a reason for that.”

“But you really think he shot Adam? Or had someone do it for him- if he was even on to him if that was even what Adam was doing,” Trudy asks. The question isn’t one coming from a place of doubt, Kevin can tell from her tone, it’s more the kind of tone where she’s making sure he’s sure.

“Trudy, Nolan made patrol not roll for us, it got Ruz shot. He bugged my apartment. He had people beat me up. If he knew Ruz was backing me, which he absolutely does, I think it’s very possible that he’d have someone shoot him especially if he thought Ruz was looking into him. Adam was backing me, Trudy. To Nolan he might as well be a gang banger,” Kevin says confidently. This is his fault. He dragged Adam into his fight with Nolan, and now it’s Adam paying the price  _ again;  _ and this time it’s a lot worse than a bullet to the vest and a cracked rib. This time Adam’s down, and there’s no telling if he’ll get back up. He should’ve had his partner’s back.

“Okay,” Trudy says slowly, nodding her head. “So. Nolan knows something about the kids and they know something him, or he at least thinks they do-”

“And the kids know him. They won’t say how or why, but they do. The older brother, Joey. freaked out when he showed up at the house,” Kevin adds.

“Kevin, you need to tell Voight, if he hasn’t already figured it out,” Trudy sighs. “You handled it, and you did it right, but Adam, bless his idiot heart, has opened a very big can of worms, and the lid’s not going back on. Especially if he actually found something.”

“I know,” Kevin says quietly and stands up. He’d wanted so bad for this to go away, and for a little while it had. But Trudy’s right. There’s more at stake than just him and his career now, and secrets are no good. Keeping secrets is what got Adam shot. “Thanks Trudy.”

“And Kevin, one more thing.” Trudy’s quiet call stops in the doorway.

“Anything,” Kevin replies, turning around to face her. Ever since he met her, she’s been a force to be reckoned with, an ageless symbol of strength and determination who’s always stood strong at that fort ot a front desk and always will, but right now she looks old. Old, fragile, and tired- tired of watching the young cops she brought up and raised in the department get cut down. It’s frightening, really.

“Promise me you won’t do anything stupid,” she says tiredly. “You’re all the idiot kids I never had, and I’m so tired of sitting in these hospital rooms. I want you to catch the son of a bitch who did this to Adam, but don’t get yourself killed in the process. I know you’re angry and scared, I am too, but it’s not worth it, Kevin. I can’t bury both of you. I can’t do it, Kevin. I’m not strong enough.”

“Woah, hey,” Kevin soothes and rushes back to Trudy’s side as she buries her face in her hands, her shoulders shaking. “No one’s getting buried.” He promises and crouches next to her, wrapping one around her shoulders. “Ruz is going to be okay. And I promise I’ll be careful. We’re all going to be okay. It’ll be okay.”

Trudy leans into him and keeps crying. Kevin hugs her tight, and rests his chin on her head. 

***

“How’s Adam doing?” Voight asks as soon as Kevin is back from the hospital. 

“Not great, boss,” Kevin says reluctantly and glances over at Jay and Hailey who both duck their heads sadly. “Kim decided to stay at the hospital. Her and Trudy are going to keep us posted. And boss, we need to talk.”

“Okay,” Voight says, nodding his head toward his office. Kevin takes a deep breath and follows him in, closing the door behind him.

“I talked to Trudy at the hospital, and we’re pretty sure Adam was looking into Nolan before he got shot,” Kevin say as soon as the door latch clicks behind him.

Voight pinches the bridge of his nose and heaves a deep sigh. “I assume there’s more to this theory.”

“Yes, I wouldn’t have said anything if there wasn’t. Adam was looking into somebody. Trudy gave me an address to a house he was doing off books surveillance on and it’s close to where those boys live. My guess is, Dillan delivered a few things to it and that’s why Adam ended up talking to him,” Kevin explains. “And we know after Adam talked to them someone came by and threatened them. And today, when Nolan showed up at the house to try to grab them from us, Joey freaked. He knows something about Nolan he just won’t say what, or even acknowledge he knows who he is.”

Voight frowns and sits back in his chair. “We’ve gotta play this carefully, Atwater. Nolan’s not a demon tackled lightly, but you already know that. We need a whole hell of a lot more than a theory if we’re going to go after him.”

“I know,” Kevin agrees.

“And I don’t want you cowboying on this, is that understood?” Voight says sternly.

“Yes sir.”

“Get Halstead and Upton in here.”

Kevin pokes his head out into the bull pen and calls the two detectives who have their noses buried in their computers into the office.

“I assume this means you two have something?” Jay says closing the door behind him and Hailey.

“Kevin’s got a theory,” Voight says nodding to Kevin, giving him the go ahead to talk. 

He tells the two detectives everything he just told Voight. Each time he says it out loud he becomes more sure of it. The kids know something, or at the very least Nolan thinks they know something and he probably thinks they told Adam.

“So we’re going after Nolan? The same Nolan that was gunning for you  _ and  _ has enough pull to stop patrol from rolling?” Jay says as soon as Kevin is done explaining his theory.

“You sound scared,” Hailey comments, folding her arms over her chest.

“I’m not scared,” Jay says defensively. “I just think we need to tread very lightly until we have something really lightly. We don’t know what this guy is capable of, if Ruz is any indicator at all.”

“Jay’s right,” Voight says. “And I’m only going to say this once. This stays in house. We don’t even put Nolan’s picture or name up on that board. Nobody, and I mean nobody who is not in this unit gets told who we’re looking into. And I don’t want anyone going anywhere alone. You make a coffee run, you take someone with you. Is that clear?”

Jay and Hailey both nod.

“Good, I want the two of you to go sit on that house, but don’t move on it, and if you even think you’ve been made you leave,” Voight orders. “Me and Atwater are going to go to Ruzek’s apartment and see if we can’t find any of this surveillance stuff Platt said he had.”

“Do you want me to call and get a warrant?” Jay asks.

“I’ve got a key and an open invite, we don’t need a warrant,” Kevin says. “Besides, it’s Adam.”

“I was just thinking we need this thing to be ironclad,” Jay shrugs.

“And it will be,” Voight promises. “Now let’s get to it.”

***

“I brought you some coffee,” Trudy says softly and sets down a cup on the little table by Adam’s bed. 

Kim can’t bring herself to tear her gaze away from Adam long enough to look up at Trudy or at the cup coffee.

“I love him, Trudy,” Kim whispers, gripping Adam’s hand in both of hers, wishing desperately that he would squeeze back or make some acknowledgment of her presence.

“I know, kiddo,” Trudy replies and rests a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I know.”

Kevin had called an hour ago to explain what was happening with the case and that he and Voight were going to go poke around at Adam’s apartment. She hadn’t been able to say much to him, since this morning words have seemed arbitrary, and every single one she’s tried to say has stuck in the back of her throat and choked her. It hurts. It hurts being here and it hurts seeing Adam like this. She wishes she had the energy and strength to go throw herself into the case, to help catch the bastard that did this to Adam, but she can’t think. Everytime she closes her eyes she just sees Adam laying in the dirt bleeding out- the blood staining his skin and clothes. She’s washed her hands what seems like a hundred times, but the memory of his warm blood pushing between her fingers is still there. She can still feel it.

Kim leans forward and rests her head on the bed next to Adam and wraps her arms around his. She wishes more than anything that he would wake up, wrap his arms around her, and hold her close. The only person capable of making her feel better right now is him, and he’s the only person who can’t try. 

“Hey Kim?” Trudy ventures quietly and gives her shoulder a gentle squeeze. “Voight wants me to go back to the district and stay with the two boys you guys brought in. Is it-”

“You can go,” Kim says, interrupting her. It comes out more harsh and bitter than she meant it to. She’s not upset with trudy, not in the least. And there should be someone with the two kids, they’re the only people who can help them solve this mess who are actually awake and coherent.

“You’ll call me if-”

“Yes, go.”

“Kim-”

“I’ll be fine.”

She feels bad for being so abrupt with Trudy, but she’s tired and doesn’t feel like talking or getting pity. She mostly just wants to be left alone.

“Okay,” Trudy says quietly and slips out of the room leaving Kim alone with Adam.

Kim scoots her chair closer to the bed and leans in closer to Adam.

“Hey, baby,” Kim whispers quietly and cups Adam’s cheek in her hand. “I know you’re tired, but i need you to keep on fighting- I need you to come back to me.”

There’s a soft knock on the door and Will Halstead pokes his head into the room. “Hey, Platt said you’d probably want to be left alone, but I need to check on a couple things with Ruzek. It’ll only take a couple minutes-”

“It’s fine,” Kim sniffles and pulls away from Adam. She hadn’t even realized she’d started crying until now. Will gives her an appreciative nod and a weak smile and slips into the room holding a clipboard in one hand. 

Kim watches Jay’s brother as he walks over to the other side of Adam’s bed to review his charts. Will’s always had a good poker face, Jay always calls it his doctor face and it’s something he complains about constantly, but right now Will isn’t doing a very good job of keeping his Doctor Face on. She can tell he’s concerned. His jaws clenched and his eyebrows are creased, and he’s shaking his head slightly in a way that clears shows he’s not happy about what he’s seeing.

“What’s wrong?” Kim asks and Will looks up at her in surprise like he wasn’t expecting her to say anything, or maybe it’s because he hadn’t realized how obvious he was being.

“Nothing,” he says shaking his head and looking back down at the charts.

“Will, the faces you’re making- those aren’t “nothing” faces. What’s wrong?” Kim insists, not buying his bullshit response for one second.

Will sighs and looks back up at her. “His vitals haven’t improved as much as we’d hoped they would by now.”

“So he’s not getting better,” Kim says numbly. She could’ve guessed as much without being told. His breathing is still slow and shallow with no sign of improving.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Will says encouragingly and replaces the papers hang next to the bed with the updated ones. “Nothing’s gotten worse and in my book that’s him getting better. Sure it’s taking longer than we’d hoped for his vitals to pick up a little, but he’s only been out of surgery for a couple hours, and between his blood loss and taking bullets to the lung and liver estimating where his vitals should be at now, is really more of a guessing game than exact science.”

Kim’s not sure how much of what Will’s just told her is true and how much of it is just him trying to make he feel better, but she appreciates it, even if it is a lie.

“He’ll be fine,” Will adds and heads for the door, but stops next to Kim and looks down at her with a thoughtful expression. “I don’t usually suggest this, but if you want to climb up there with him you can.”

“Thanks… for everything.”

“Always, I’ll be back in a little while to check on him again,” Will says and gives her a smile. He gives her shoulder a comforting pat before heading out of the room.

Kim waits for the door click closed before she takes Will up on his offer and climbs into the bed with Adam. She carefully slides ones arm under his neck and the other around stomach as she settles in on her side next to him. She rests her against his shoulder and closes her eyes.

“I’m right here, Adam,” she whispers. “I’m right here.”

*** 

“Boss, there’s a lot of stuff on this flashdrive,” Kevin says clicking through the pictures on the flash drive they’d found at Adam’s house. The thing is full of surveillance pictures, there’s no video or audio, just tons and tons of pictures taken from outside the house Trudy had given him the address to.

“Is there any documentation of how or why he started with that house?” Voight asks, thumbing through some of the notebooks they’d found with case notes in them. Kevin’s pretty sure the notebooks aren’t going to have anything in them.

“I’m not seeing anything,” Kevin replies. “I’ve got pictures of Dillan delivering food bags to the house on multiple occasions.”

“We need to figure out what it is about that house,” Voight says. “Why was he there? What lead him there-”

“I think I got it,” Kevin says slowly as the next picture loads on the computer screen. It’s a picture of Nolan going up to the front door of the house.

“Who’s he meeting?” Voight asks, coming over to look over Kevin's shoulder. “Who’s that guy in the doorway?”

“I’m running him through facial rec now,” Kevin says. “But he’s not the owner of the house. The house belongs to an 67 year-old woman named Nancy Truman.” 

“What’s her background like?” Voight asks, turning back around to keep flipping through Adam’s notebooks.

“She’s clean, nothing worse than a couple parking tickets. Her financials are clean. She used to be Nancy Fuller until about 15 years ago when she got a divorce…” Kevin trails off as the picture of the guy he just put through facial rec pops. “Boss.”

Voight turns back around, lifting his eyebrows. “Our second guy’s a cop?”

“Phillip Fuller… and  _ was _ a cop like 15 years ago. Then he went to prison stealing money and drugs from evidence,” Kevin says slowly. “This says a lot of it was never recovered, but the reason they caught him was because a senior officer caught him with a kilo of the missing stuff in the trunk of his car during a routine traffic stop.”

“So what’s his connection to Nolan?” Voight asks.

“Umm, oh! Nolan was his training officer. And never believed that Fuller stole the stuff,” Kevin said skimming through the reports. “Fuller got out of prison 2 years ago. He’s been popped once on drug possession since then. That was about 2 months agoedsde, but it went away- Nolan paid the bail.”

Voight frowns. “We might be looking at this wrong.”

“What the hell do you mean?” Kevin demands turning his gaze up to meet Voight’s. It seems pretty obvious: Nolan is in cahoots with a dirty cop and they have evidence of drugs being delivered to the house. They take down Nolan for being an accomplice to whatever shady shit is going down.

“Nolan might be there trying to get his old rookie clean,” Voight says.

“Are you serious?” Kevin shouts and stands up. He can’t even believe his ears right now; he can not believe Voight is vouchering for Nolan after everything. Not just what’s happened today, but everything in the last month. “Are you serious right now?”

“Atwater-”

“No! Ruz just got shot three times looking into this guy! It’s not just some random everyday shooting- it’s Ruzek. Adam Ruzek. The guy you and Olinsky pulled out of the academy and practically raised together!  _ My partner _ ! He got gunned down and left for dead- bleeding out in the mud in a damn junk yard, Voight!” Kevin shouts, he can feel the anger burning in his cheeks and boiling up inside of him. “And you’re trying to protect our biggest lead, simply because he’s a cop?! I hate to break it to you, but there are some bad cops in this city!”

“You don’t think I know that?!” Voight yells. “That’s  _ my _ guy that just got shot! A member of  _ my  _ team that  _ I  _ am supposed to protect! Nobody, and I repeat  _ nobody  _ is getting the benefit of the doubt on this one Atwater! Now sit down. Shut up, and let me finish.”

Kevin doesn’t say anything back, but he doesn’t sit down either. He’s too angry. Keeping it in makes him feel like his chest is going to explode, but he keeps his mouth shut.

“We were all thinking because Nolan had a connection with the kid unknowingly delivering drugs, that he was involved in drugs. But it could be that Fuller is on drugs and Nolan is trying to keep him from getting busted again,” Voight explains with a forced calm. “And we both know that he takes things too far.”

“So he threatens the kids not to tell anyone that they delivered to the house,” Kevin finishes for him. “He found out we were after the kids and decided to try to grab them from us so they couldn’t tell us anything to try to make a deal and save their own asses. But that’s not going to be enough to bring him down or link him to what happened to Adam. As far as we know Nolan didn’t even know Adam was looking into him.”

“If he’s involved in any way with what happened to Ruzek he’s going down,” Voight says sternly, looking Kevin in the eyes. “I promise you that.”

“Hey, Kevin,” Trudy says coming into the bullpen with Dillan walking behind her, almost like he’s hiding. “Dillan wants to talk to you.”

***

“What’s up, Dillan?” Kevin asks closing the door to the break room behind him and gesturing for him to sit down on the couch.

“I lied,” Dillan mumbles, his eyes darting around like he’s trying to avoid eye contact with Kevin. “I wanted to tell Officer Burgess the truth, but I was scared.”

“That’s okay,” Kevin says and crouches down in front of the kid. “And it’s okay to be scared.”

“I know…” Dillan breathes. Kevin can tell the kid is beating around the bush; He’s still scared to say whatever it is that he lied about.

“Listen, whatever you have to say, no matter what it is, we’ll protect you and make sure nothing bad happens to you because of it, okay?” Kevin promises.

“Even if it’s about another cop?” Dillan asks cautiously. “Joey said you guys only care about other cops so you won’t protect us anymore and that you’ll do whatever you want to protect them-”

“Dillan, listen to me,” Kevin says sternly. “When I said no matter what, I meant it. I don’t care if the person’s a cop- actually I do, because if it’s a cop it’s even more important that we catch them. Okay? I won’t let anything happen to you or your brother. If you know of a dirty cop you need to tell me so I can stop them.”

Dillan nods. “That cop who showed up at the house- the one who wanted to arrest us… I’ve seen him before.”

“Okay, where?” Kevin says leaning forward.

“At that house Adam asked me about,” Dillan says reluctantly and his eyes go to the floor. “I lied to him to.”

“To Adam?”

Dillan nods slowly. “I told him I didn’t know about the house. Did that get him shot?”

Kevin purses his lips and shakes his head. “No kid, if anything it kept him alive. Adam’s always been a little too quick to jump into the action. If you’d told him you saw that guy there he probably would’ve tried to bust the place alone.”

“I didn’t know he was a cop until he showed up earlier today,” Dillan says.

“How does your brother know who he is?” Kevin asks. “When I asked Joey he said he didn’t know him-”

“He was in the car when a different guy came to threaten us into not talking,” Dillan explains.

“The other guy, is this him?” Kevin asks and pulls up a picture of Fuller on his phone.

Dillan nods. “Yeah, and he was the person who shot at us this morning when we met with Adam.”

“You’re sure?” Kevin asks, barely believing it. They know exactly where the guy is, bringing him in will kill two birds with one stone. They’ll have brought in Adam’s shooter and as a bonus they can flip him on Nolan. And when Adam wakes up they’ll have everything he knows which Kevin is guessing is considerably more than any of them know at the moment.

“Yes,” Dillan says nodding his head. 

“Okay great. Wait here okay? I’m going to go talk to my boss,” Kevin says standing up and heading for the door.

“Hey Boss,” he calls as he walks back out into the bullpen. His words die in his throat as his gaze settles on Nolan who is leaning against one of the desks waiting for Voight to get off the phone.

“You need to leave,” Kevin says as his gaze meets Nolan’s. He slams the break room door closed, hoping Nolan didn’t get the chance to see Dillan here.

“No,” Nolan says standing up and glaring at Kevin.

“Why are you here,” Kevin demands and takes a threatening step toward the man.

“I heard one an officer here got shot so I’m coming to offer my assistance,” Nolan hisses back.

“Bullshit,” Kevin barks and glances over at Trudy who’s standing angily a few feet away. “Why did you let him up here?”

“I wasn’t the one who did it,” she growls, keeping her glare on Nolan.

Kevin clenches his fists, he can feel his palms getting sweaty with the anger building up inside of him. It’s taking all of his self control not to slap cuffs on him and throw him in the cage to beat everything out of him. He has the  _ audacity  _ to show up here.

“Okay thank you,” Voight says quietly and hangs up the phone. His face is an unreadable mask. Trudy frowns like she knows and understands the look. “That was the hospital.” Voight says and tosses his phone down on the desk. His jaws clenched now, like it’s taking all his strength not to let any emotion through the cracks.

“How’s your officer?” Nolan asks with what seems like genuine concern, but Kevin knows it’s not real. There’s no way it is.

“He’s…” Voight trails off, his eyebrows furrowing.

“Hank-” Trudy starts and takes half a step toward him.

Kevin’s stomach drops, something’s wrong.

“He died 15 minutes ago,” Voight says, his voice hollow and broken.

There’s a moment where it doesn’t quite register with Kevin. The words are just sound with no meaning- or words that can’t possibly be true because there’s just way they can be. Then the cold hard reality sets in hitting Kevin with a wave grief that almost knocks him off his feet and it’s followed quickly by blinding rage. Anger at himself for not being with Adam with him, anger at the kid in the other room for not saying anything sooner, anger at Adam for being so damn stupid and trying to do this alone, and finally the boilding burning fury at Nolan for everything. Before he even realizes what he’s doing he’s throwing himself at the man, his vision blurry with rage and probably tears too. Even if he had the presence of mind to realize what he’s doing is stupid he wouldn’t stop himself.

“You son of bitch!” He roars with a voice that doesn’t quite sound like his own. “You killed my partner you  _ son of a bitch! _ ” 

He grabs Nolan by the collar and smashes his fist into his face hard. He can’t even feel it, the only reason he knows the blow actually landed is because he loses his grip on Nolan's shirt as the man hits the ground.

“You killed him and you’re going to pay for it! We’re coming for you-”

“Kevin! Kevin!” He can hear Voight shouting his name, he can even feel his boss grabbing him and pulling him back.

“No! Voight! He killed him!” Kevin shouts, throwing his weight against Voight’s shoulder.

“Atwater! Shut up!” Voight shouts and gives Kevin a hard shove. “Shut up and get in my office!”

“You’re just going to let him get away!” Kevin protests as Voight pushes him through the door into his office and slams the door behind them. 

“You’re going to blow the case!” Voight hisses, this time his voice is low and quiet.

_ The case. _ Adam is _dead_ and Voight's worried about the case? They should be grabbing Nolan and shoving him in the cage, not just letting him walk out. He killed Adam and they all know it.

“He killed Ruz and you're worried about me blowing the case!?" Kevin shouts, his anger boiling over. He can't believe this is happening. It can't be true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to ask everyone to bear with me for one more chapter. It'll be worth your time. I promise.


	3. Chapter 3

“Hey, Kim.”

Kim nearly jumps out of her skin at the sound of Will’s quiet whisper and him touching her shoulder. She hadn’t even realized she’d fallen asleep until now. She blinks her eyes and sits up a little, being careful not to accidentally bump Adam.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, glancing around the room. It’s dark outside the window in the room so she knows she’s been asleep for a while.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Will promises. “Ruzek is fine. But Voight just called a little bit ago and he wants to move him into a more private wing with security. The case has taken a turn.”

“What kind of a turn?” Kim asks, swinging her legs off the bed and standing up. She leaves her hand closed around Adam’s.

“He didn’t say, but he said-” Will stops and sighs. “He wants the hospital to fill out paperwork to make it look like, paper wise, that he’s dead.”

“ _ What _ ?” Kim breathes. She’s only ever heard stories about people doing things like this, and none of them have ever come from a reliable source. She’d never really believed they actually faked people’s deaths for a case.

“He said Ruzek’ll probably be safer if people think he’s dead,” Will explains. “It wouldn’t’ve been my first move, but he apparently thinks it’s the best move right now. The only people who know he’s not dead are going to be me, everyone in intelligence, a select few other doctors and nurses here and Platt.”

“Did he say anything else?” Kim asks.

“He told me to tell you that if you leave to go work on the case you can’t come back to visit Adam. He doesn’t want anyone to figure out what we're doing.”

“Well, I’m not going anywhere, so it doesn’t matter,” Kim replies. Even if she would be allowed back she wouldn’t leave. She’s staying right here with Adam until he wakes up and nothing’s changing that, especially now that Voight obviously thinks he’s in danger. And when he does wake up they’ll need someone here to take his statement and get him to share everything he has on the case. “I’m staying with Adam.”

“Okay,” Will replies, nodding his approval.

***

“Copy thanks,” Hailey says and hangs up her conversation with Voight.

“What’d he say?” Jay asks, taking one headphone out of his ear. Their wiretap on the phones in the house have been quiet since they started sitting on it. It’s been a long day of nothing. Fuller has only come out of the house once and that was to yell at his mom who was outside gardening.

“Adam’s still stable back at MED, but Nolan showed up at the district and Voight wanted to set a trap, and maybe help us get something on the wire, so he told Nolan Ruzek didn’t make it,” Hailey explains. “And he and Kevin are headed here. We’re gonna move on Fuller.”

Jay lifts his eyebrows in surprise and shakes his head. That’s a new one, pretty risky too, but he’s honestly surprised they haven’t used it before. He’s about to comment on his opinion of this spur of the moment plan hatched by Voight, but the computer beeps signaling that Fuller has an incoming call.

“Hang on, we got an incoming call from a burner,” Jay says and hands a set of headphones to his partner.

_ “Why are you calling me Nolan?”  _ Fuller’s voice sounds in Jay's ear.

_ “Ruzek is dead,” _ replies the voice on the burner.

_ “I thought he already was! You said-” _

_ “I know what I said. Now just shut up. You need to dump your gun and get out of town. Intelligence will be coming for you sooner or later-” _

_ “I’m not going back to prison!” _

_ “Then do as I say and get the hell out of town, and if you get caught keep your damn mouth shut.” _

_ “Damn it! I thought you had this under control!” _

_ “What did I just say Fuller! We’re done talking.”  _ Nolan hangs up.

“I think that’s enough to move without a warrant,” Jay says and pulls his vest on. Both of these sons of bitches have something to do with Ruz getting shot, and he doesn’t especially care which one pulled the trigger. He’s going to make sure they both go down.

“Jay, wait,” Hailey says, grabbing his wrist before he can get out of the van. “We wait for backup, okay?”

“Hailey, they tried to kill Ruz-”

“And we need this case to stick, Jay,” she argues. “And we don’t need anyone else in this unit getting shot.”

“If he makes a run for it, we’re grabbing him,” Jay says, taking his hand off the handle of the van. He just wants five minutes alone with Fuller, Ruz is like his kid brother, his idiot kid brother who drives him up a wall about 10 times a week, but still his kid brother. He’s family. The whole unit is.

“Voight and Atwater are almost here,” Hailey says and squeezes Jay’s shoulder.

“You two got your ears on?” Voight’s voice sounds over their radios.

“Reading you loud and clear,” Jay replies, picking up his radio.

“Atwater’s got the schematics to the house. We’re going to come in hot. You and Upton are going to take the back door. Atwater and I’ll take the front.”

“And be advised, there is at least one civilian in the house,” Kevin adds. “It’s a 67 year old woman, with no criminal record.”

“Copy that,” Jay says.

“Go ahead and start moving into position,” Voight says. “We’re just down the block.”

“Copy that,” Jay says, sliding his radio into his belt loop and slides open the van door. “Ladies first.”

“Then by all means, you first,” Hailey says, gesturing for Jay to go first. It’s the first joke that’s been cracked from anyone since this mess started.

Jay manages a chuckle and hops out of the van before her. It’s dark outside, but the lights are still on inside Fuller’s mother’s house. He can see the lights of Voight’s car reflecting down the street maybe two blocks down as he and Hailey run across the street keeping low and out of the light cast onto the wet street by a street lamp. They reach the wall of the house and stay low and out of sight of the windows as they work their way toward the back of the house.

“We’re in position,” Jay whispers into the radio just as the sound of tires screeching sounds from around the corner of the house. 

“Breach!” Voight shouts only a couple seconds later.

Jay nods to Hailey and steps to the little rickety back door; with one swift hard kick he breaks the door open. “Chicago PD!”

His shout is echoed by Kevin on the other side of the house. Jay and Hailey are barely through the door before Fuller is opening fire on them.

*** 

“Fuller! Put the gun down!” Kevin shouts taking cover behind a corner. Fuller has Jay and Hailey pinned down behind a counter.

“I’m not going back to prison!” He screams in reply and starts shooting toward Kevin.

“I will drop you!” Voight shouts taking up shelter across the hallway from Kevin in a doorway.

“Boss, we need him alive,” Kevin whispers. They need him to flip on Nolan, they need him to stay in one piece.

“We can work out a deal,” Kevin calls trying to talk the guy down.

“I shot a cop!” Fuller yells. “There’s not deal for that, especially since you guys think I finished him off!”

Fuller steps out from behind the corner he’s been tucked behind and raises his gun in Voight and Kevin’s direction.

“Boss! Don’t!” Kevin cries, but before he can get the words out, Voight fires and three times and Fuller goes down.

“He was going to give us Nolan!” Kevin cries and runs down the hallway toward the body. He throws himself down next to Fuller and starts chest compressions. “You can’t die, you son of a bitch! That’s too easy! You can’t die!”

He knows it’s pointless and that it won’t do anything, Voight shot to kill, but he has to try even if there’s no point. This guy was going to make their case.

“Kevin,” Voight says quietly and grabs him by the shoulder. 

“Get off me!” Kevin shouts and stands up, pulling away from his boss. “Just back off!”

“Atwater-”

“No! I’m done dealing with you tonight! You told me my partner was dead! And now? Now you shot our best chance at catching the guy that started this shit show!”

Kevin is half expecting Voight to fight back, but instead he just nods his head and holsters his gun before saying a simple: “Okay.”

Kevin’s not exactly sure how to react; he’d be so ready, so geared up for a fight that Voight’s quiet response takes all the wind out of his sails.

“Get out of here,” Voight says with a sigh. “Go home or go visit your partner. It’s been a hard day. You need to rest up.”

“Are you serious?” Kevin asks, frowning at Voight.

“Yes,” Voight says and waves Kevin. “The three of us got this and the crime lab will be here any second to sweep the place.”

The man looks tired, more tired than Kevin has ever seen him look before, and he can’t help but wonder if Voight’s reaction to Kevin's attack is because he’s too tired to fight right now.

“Burgess needs company, go on.”

“We got this, man,” Jay says encouragingly. “Go on.”

***

“Hey Kim, can I talk to you a minute?” Will asks breaking the peaceful quiet of the hospital room.

“Sure, what’s wrong?” She asks sitting up and watching the doctor as he comes into the hospital room.

“Nothing’s really wrong, I just have something that might help the case,” Will says leaning against the end of Adam’s bed. “I assisted on the surgery, and the bullet we pulled out of Ruzek’s chest was a different caliber than the other two. I didn’t notice it at first, but I just went back and checked.”

“You guys still have the bullets right?” Kim asks. Two different guns most likely means two different shooters, which means one of them could’ve been Nolan.

“Yeah, right here,” Will says and holds up a plastic baggie with the three smashed bullets in it.

“Okay, Kevin said he’d be here in a couple minutes. When he gets here, give those to him and tell him to get them to ballistics,” Kim orders. “And Will, do not give them to anyone else, no matter what. You hand them to Kevin or nobody at all. And don’t tell anyone else you have them either.”

“Okay,” Will says standing up straight and returning the bullets to his pocket. “This case seems like a real mess. Sorry this is happening.”

“Thank you Will,” Kim says quietly, and nods her head toward Adam. “For everything.”

“Of course Kim.” Will says giving her a small head nod as he steps toward the door. “Come get me if you need me for anything.”

Will slips out of the room, once again leaving Kim alone with Adam; Kim settles back down with Adam, and leans her head against his shoulder.

“I’m right here, Adam,” she whispers, and intertwines her fingers with his. She waits a second, hoping for some response, some acknowledgement of her presence. Something that lets her know he knows she’s there for him, like he’s been there for her every single time she’s been in a hospital bed injured and broken. “I’m not going anywhere, I promise. I’m going to be right here when you wake up.”

Kim leans over and kisses him on the cheek; she hates being on this side of things, as she’s sure he does too, and she’d gladly switch places with him. She’d do anything if it meant he’d just wake up and be okay; this not knowing if he’s going to be okay or even wake up again is killing her. She squeezes his hand, and for the first time since all of this mess started, he responds. It’s not a big gesture, but he closes his fingers around her hand and shifts his head slightly in her direction.

“Adam?” Kim breathes and lifts her head off the bed.

“Kim…” Adam mumbles, the sound barely escaping his lips. 

“Yeah, it’s me. I’m right here baby,” Kim chokes, tears coming into her eyes as she cups one hand around Adam’s cheek. She almost doesn’t believe what’s happening; today has been like its own private eternity of just waiting and hoping.

Adam opens his eyes and blinks a few times. “You okay?”

“ _ Me? _ !” She’s not even sure how to respond to the question. “Adam, you just got shot three times- you could’ve died… nobody knew if you were going to wake up, I’m not the one you should be asking about!”

Adam smiles and squeezes her hand gently. “Yes you are.”

“Adam-”

“I know you Kim,” he whispers. “I know I’m more or less okay, but you…”

“I’m okay,” Kim promises. She wasn’t, she wasn’t anywhere near okay before, but now- now that Adam’s awake and being very much himself, worrying about her, she’s okay. 

“You sure?” Adam asks, letting his eyes fall closed.

“I am now that I know you’re okay,” Kim promises.

“And Kev?” Adam asks.

“He’s pissed, but okay,” Kim says gently. When he’d called to say he was coming to visit he’d sounded like he was ready to kick in Nolan’s door and arrest the bastard with or without any evidence. 

“And the kids… did you guys find them?” Adam asks, opening his eyes. “I promised them…”

“We found them. They’re safe. Trudy’s with them, which is the only reason she’s not here with us,” Kim says. “Adam, I know you just woke up but we need to know what happened this morning?”

Adam closes his eyes again and sighs heavily. “I was going to bring the kids in and this guy-”

“Fuller?”

Adam nods. “He started shooting. I told the kids to run. I got hit twice then… Nolan showed up…”

“Are you sure it was him?” Kim asks.

“Yeah,” Adam says slowly and swallows. “He shot me in the chest… said something about me backing the wrong side… he shot me…”

He says it like he still doesn’t fully believe it, even like he doesn’t actually believe he got shot at all.

“I need to call Kevin and Voight,” Kim says, giving Adam’s hand a comforting squeeze. “They’re gonna get him.”

***

Kevin had known ever since seeing Nolan at Dillan and Joey’s house that he was involved in Adam’s shooting, but now there’s confirmation, actual verbal confirmation from Adam that Nolan shot him and left him to die. It was one thing when Nolan was coming after  _ him _ , Kevin could handle it he was fine with it, but Nolan crossed a line, too many lines to count actually, when he shot Adam. He’s not going to get away with it. Kevin won’t let him; he’s going to sink the son of a bitch.

“I want him,” Kevin says to Voight before his boss has even finished getting out of the car at Nolan’s house. There’s no way in hell Kevin is letting anyone else do it. “I’m doing it.”

Voight glances over at Hailey and Jay who both nod, seeming to say ‘ let him.’

“Okay,” Voight says and hands the warrant to Kevin. “Okay.”

Kevin doesn’t wait for anymore confirmation from Voight before turning around and walking toward the house. He stops at the door, the rest of the team- all except for his partners, behind him. It’s Nolan’s fault Kim and Adam aren’t here. They should be here. The anger that’s been building up inside of him all day, ever since finding Adam shot and bleeding out alone in the dirt has about reached its boiling over point. He’s tempted to kick the door in, march inside, cuff Nolan and drag him outside in cuffs in front of his family.

“How ever you want to do this,” Voight says and puts one hand on Kevin’s shoulder.

Kevin takes a deep breath and presses the doorbell. He’s won, if it can even be considered a win since Adam had to get shot and almost die in order for it to happen, so he’s going to win  _ his  _ way. He’s not going to let his anger, his hatred, of Nolan ruin him and his morals. If does that, Nolan still wins.

“Hello?” It’s Nolan’s wife who answers the door.

“Chicago PD,” Kevin says and holds up his badge. “We need to speak with your husband.”

“Kenny! There are some police officers here to see you,” the woman calls over her shoulder. “Would you guys like to come in out of the cold.”

“No thank you,” Kevin says politely. 

Nolan appears behind his wife and his face hardens into a glare as soon as he realizes it’s Kevin who’s there to see him.

“We don’t have anything to say to them,” he says bitterly. “Come in and close the door-”

“Actually it doesn’t matter if you have something to say,” Kevin interrupts him and stops the door with his foot. He’d wanted to do this peacefully and not right in front of Nolan’s family, but he’s not giving him a choice. “I need you to step outside.”

“What?!” Nolan demands.

“Kenny, none of us are in the mood. Step outside,” Voight snarls and Kevin can see him rest one hand on his gun.

“What the hell are you people doing?” Nolan growls menacingly and steps outside. “You have no right being here.”

“We do, it’s called an arrest warrant,” Kevin says and holds up the piece of paper, before handing it off to Jay and grabbing his cuffs.

“You can’t be serious-”

“I am dead serious,” Kevin replies calmly and grabs Nolan by the wrist and twists him around. The police sergeant resists, and Kevin shoves him into the wall and clamps the cuffs around one of his wrists, then twists his other arm around and cuffs it. “Nolan, I am placing you under arrest for the attempted murder of Officer Adam Ruzek. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law-”

“What?!” Nolan tries to protest as Kevin pulls him away from the wall and shoves him in the direction of their waiting cars.

“-You have the right to an attorney. If you don’t have one, one will be appointed to you.”

“This is outrageous!”

Kevin stops and pulls Nolan’s head back so the man’s ear is close to his mouth. “No, what’s outrageous is you actually thought you’d be able to get away with shooting  _ my  _ partner and leaving him in the dirt to die, you piece of shit.”

***

Adam’s laying awake in bed staring up at the white ceiling above him; he’s more or less alone now because Kim fell asleep, her head rested on his shoulder. He can’t seem to get himself to fall back asleep though. It’s all too fresh, staring down the barrel of a gun, the searing pain as bullets ripped holes in his body… and with no blood loss to force him into unconsciousness he can’t sleep- he doesn’t even want to sleep; closing his eyes makes the memories of it all just a little too real and he can still clearly see the look Nolan’s face as the man stood over him and shot him.

He sighs and rests his chin on Kim’s head; he can’t stay awake forever, he knows that. Eventually he’ll fall back asleep, but he’s content to just lay still and be close to Kim now. Listening to her breathing is calming and comforting.

“Hey, Ruz, you awake man?” Kevin’s quiet whisper drifts through the room as a beam of light stretches out across the dim floor. Adam looks over and sees his partner poking his head into the room.

“ Yeah, I’m awake,” Adam replies quietly, hoping he doesn’t accidently wake up Kim. She’s been so worried and stressed she needs the sleep, and he’s actually surprised she managed to relax enough to pass out.

“How you feelin’ man?” Kevin asks, slipping into the room and creeping around to the side of the bed where Kim isn’t sleeping.

“Oh you know… like I got hit by a truck. Same old same old,” Adam jokes weakly. He can see in Kevin’s expression that he’s worried and exhausted.

“I’m sorry, Ruz,” Kevin says quietly and pats the top of Adam’s hand. There’s a look of guilt in his eyes along with the worry and exhaustion.

“What’ve you got to be sorry about?” Adam asks. He knows where his partner’s head is at, he doesn’t really need Kevin to say it out loud. “None of this is your fault.”

“I should’ve had your back,” Kevin replies. “And I’m sorry-”

“Kev, you had my back. You and Kim got me here, and you got Nolan,” Adam whispers. “You don’t have anything to be sorry about.”

“If me and Kim hadn’t been pulling over time-”

“Kev, Kev, don’t do that man,” Adam cuts him off, shaking his head. “Don’t do that to yourself, man.”

“You shouldn’t have been there alone,” Kevin insists.

“You’re right, but it’s not your fault I was there alone. It’s mine Kev. I didn’t tell you, or anyone for that matter, because I thought I could handle it,” Adam says.

“Ruz, you don’t get it. I shouldn’t have let you feel like it was your responsibility to deal with my mess! I should’ve handled it! You shouldn’t have felt obligated to play clean up-”

“Kevin, you’re my partner man… my  _ family. _ I’m gonna have your back, and if you’re in trouble and I see a way to help, I’m going to help. Every time. Nothing about what happened is your fault. Okay?” Adam says and locks eyes with his partner. “Okay?”

Kevin nods and then closes his eyes and shakes his head. “You scared the shit out of me bro.”

“I’m sorry,” Adam mumbles.

“Ruz, from now on if you think you’re onto something, even if you don’t want me to worry about it, you tell me. Okay? No more running around on your own. You’re my partner, bro. Which means you gotta let  _ me  _ have  _ your  _ back too,” Kevin says sternly.

“Okay,” Adam says with a sigh.

“You promise?”

“I promise,” Adam replies tiredly, and after that they lapse into silence. Kevin sits down in one of the hospital chairs and settles in. Adam’s glad he’s here, and that he’s okay and safe from Nolan. Getting shot was less than ideal, but it got Nolan taken down and it helped Kevin, so he’d gladly do it all over again.

“Ruz?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope you guys enjoyed it! and thanks for sticking with me another chapter!

**Author's Note:**

> questions? comments? concerns (apart from horrible lack of editing)


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